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Home > My Ancestors >
Syrian-Lebanese >
Timeline: 1950-present
- 1950s:
Syrian professionals emigrate in large numbers.
- 1950:
James Batal, born in Lawrence Massachusetts, publishes
Assignment: Near East while lecturing at American
University in Beirut.
- 1954:
Approximately 11,000 Syrian-Lebanese live in Boston,
working mostly in the garment industry.
- 1954:
Lowell native Rosalind Elias debuts at Metropolitan
Opera House in Wagner's "Die Walduere."
- 1960:
American Arabic Association, organized by Francis
Maria, starts in Boston and its humanitarian causes
reach many people.
- 1964:
Mohammed Omar (emigrated from Lebanon in 1912) creates
a mosque, now called the Islamic Center of New England
in Quincy. Sam Hassan, whose father and uncles immigrated
to Quincy in 1902, becomes its first president.
- 1967:
A Boston meeting creates an interfaith Near East Bishops
Emergency Relief Fund to help Palestinian refugees
following hostilities between Israel and Arab states.
- 1969:
Farouk El-Baz, Egyptian born, consults on the Apollo
Moon landing; in 1999, he directs the Center for Remote
Sensing at Boston University.
- 1971:
At the request of the House of Representatives' Foreign
Relations Committee, the President of the American
Arabic Association of Boston, Michael Nackel, reports
on Jerusalem to the Committee.
- 1974:
World War II Corporal Raymond A.L. Saquet gets a square
named after him in Boston. In all there are five squares
named after Lebanese war heroes: Thomas Karem Square
(Kneeland and Albany Streets); John S. Lufty (Oak
and Taylor Streets); Thomas Abraham (Harvard and Hudson
Streets); Michael Abraham (Oak and Hudson Streets);
Nicholas G. Beram (Washington and La Grange Streets
in West Roxbury). Another charitable group, still
active, is founded--The American Arabic Benevolent
Association.
- 1975-76:
The Lebanese Civil War causes a great deal of emigration.
- 1984:
Arab Americans in the New England states of Connecticut,
Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts
total 210,000. Approximately 10% are foreign born,
60% second generation, and 30% third or fourth generation.
- 1985:
Boston Public Library puts up an Arab Heritage Exhibit
focusing on contemporary poetry, music, and community.
- 1990:
Harvard University Professor Elias J. Corey wins the
Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
- 1997:
South End sculptor Kahlil Gibran, cousin of the famed
author, has five pieces accepted in an exhibit at
Chesterwood in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
- 1998:
The Boston Globe on May 24 features Abington
High School teacher Robert Louis for his program teaching
Arabic language and culture.
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